San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-10-03

| you go fishing in the Dancing Polly, Won
had better ask Capt. Pollard TO go with
| you. And now / think shall go up stairs
and have my sleep out"
We all thought the case was over and
the cause won, when a young fellow, one
of the sixteen, Skirling by name-he was
| a Weymouth man; no man nearer than
Weymouth would have willingly testified
against Dan-stepped forward and spoke,
with many stammers and with much hes
| itation.
beg your honOr's pardon. / preached
one of they kegs in the dark. filed this
here bottle''-he held out a fiat bottle,
two-thirds emptied-''with John Beer
there"-everybody looked reproachfully
at John Beer, the cousin of our Lyme bar
ber-''and we drank it together"
"Swear this man" said the justice, sit
| ting down again.
They gave him the oath, and he repeated
the evidence. The worthy magistrate
tried to cross examine him; but it was
useless. The presence of the brandy could
not otherwise be accounted for.
Then they called on John Beer, and
that young fellow, with bushes and much
unwillingness, was fain to confirm the
statement.
The justice of the peace made no fur
ther opposition.
at must be-" he said, with choke in
his voice. at is in the hope, Dan Guilt
yer, and You others-Job CULVER, Jeph-
thah Gulliver and William Campion, all
described as common mariners-that you
will have speedy deliverance and quickly
return to your-your farming and the
rest Of it, that sign this document. The
law Is uncertain. Times are hard. Hon
est men cannot be spared. All, it is a
terrible misfortune! And at this juncture,
too, when good brandy is almost not to be
had and my own cellar, regret to say,
entirely empty"
So they were all committed to trial and
bail refused
Early as it was the whole population of
Lyme was in the streets to witness, in
sympathy and sorrow, the departure of
Dan Gulliver and his sons-caught at
last-for Dorchester Jail. Loud were the
lamentations and deep were the curses
which were uttered on the unknown in
former who had wrought this evil. They
put us in a wagon and we drove Off-nO
one refusing to let me go toto Bridport
and Dorchester, the dreariest journey
ever made in my life, except one even
more sorrowful, which was to come later.
There happened, after the reluctant
justice had granted his warrant, very
strange thing and one which caused the
sides of all Lyme Regis to shake with
laughing. We heard the news ourselves
two days afterward.
Capt Pollard, ashamed of his own
haste which was almost the cause of a
miscarriage of justice, dispatched four of
his men to seize the cargo and the boat
and to bring them round to the cove at
Lyme. Both boat and cargo were the
prize Of the captors, and very tidy haul
the prize would prove.
The men, by their own account, lost no
time in marching back to Rousdon. 1t
was about 8 o'clock when they got to the
farm. Here they found Isaac Agus at
work in the yard and his wife in the
dairy and no one else about the place.
Unsuspiciously they descended the hill
and boarded their prize.
The Dancing Polly was empty
The whole of her cargo was gone. Not
one keg left; not a single trace of any
brandy at all; the prize snatched from
under their very eyes.
The men looked at each other aghast.
It had been grief to most of them to arrest
old Dan at all; he had ever been q good
friend to all who wanted a little cheap
spirit; but this laudable repugnance to
perform the more ungrateful portion of
their duties was moderated by the pros
pect of a prize The Dancing Polly,
as she stood with al her gear, was worth
something, no doubt And then there
was the brandy.
They looked at each other in dismay.
Where was it? Without a word they
turned and climbed the hill to the farm.
Here Isaac Agus was placidly engaged
among the pigs.
He was hard of hearing and slow OF
speech, but at length he was made "a
comprehend that unknown persons had
been at work in the bay since daybreak,
and that he was wanted to say who they
were.
He knew nothing At the usual hour
that is, before daybreak-he had left his
bed, and since then had been busy in the
farm yard. The absence of Dan and the
boys gave him no concern, because it fire.
quently happened; and he was, in his
slow way, amazed to learn that they were
all then, with the stranger, on their road
to Dorchester prison
But he knew nothing. The simple look
Of the old man, his deafness, his slowness
Of comprehension, convinced the men that
he knew nothing. Then they returned to
the bay and stood sadly contemplating
their empty prize. Sure for certain, u
said one, "folks'n laugh at usP'
''Wen they may" said another.
Then nature, which brings relief in DIFF
ferent ways, gave these honest fellows
theirs in volley of Oaths, broadside of
oaths, fired by all together. They swore
at the unknown informer, in the first in
stance, for causing them to NEEDLE with
Dan Gulliver at ali; and then at the I'M
known brigands who had robbed the
cargo; and then at the captain for being
in such a mighty hurry; and then at
things in general
Before they had anything like finished
swearing-so, that is. as to feel easy and
comfortable in their minds about the past
and philosophic as to the future-the
thought occurred to one Of them that one
of the thieves may have been the fourth
partner in the firm, Joshua Mech, of Up
Lyme Mill.
1t would be an excellent conclusion to
the business to find that heroic smuggle1
in the act of carting the kegs, or slowing
them away in the mill. They lost no time
in marching over the fields to the mill.
1t was 10 o'clock when they got there
the wheel was slowly turning, grumblinp
and grunting as it went round; the water
FLASHED into the deep, dark hole below; the
grinding of the upper and the neither stone
were heard within; an empty wagon was
standing by the door, ready TO be loaded;
and at the door was Joshua Mech himself.
His coat and fiat cap, his boots, his face,
were covered with -four. He asked them
roughly what they wanted.
When he heard that Dan was arrested,